This study demonstrated that increased dietary protein‐to‐lipid ratio (P/L‐ratio) improved survival of farmed Atlantic salmon naturally affected by pancreas disease (PD). In addition to diet, body weight (BW) and delousing mortality prior to the PD outbreak also contributed significantly (p < 0.05) to explain the observed variation in PD‐associated mortality. Subsequent to the PD outbreak, large amount of fish failed to grow and caused thin fish with poor condition (runts). At the end of the trial, significantly (p < 0.05) lower amounts of runt fish and increased amount of superior graded fish where detected among fish fed increased P/L‐ratio and within the fish with the largest BWs prior to PD. Diet, BW and delousing mortality contributed significantly (p < 0.05) to explain the variation in the amount of superior graded fish, whereas BW and diet explained the variation in the amount of runt fish. A significant (p < 0.01) negative linear relationship was observed between the amount of superior graded fish and the total mortality, whereas a positive linear relationship was detected between percentage of fillets with melanin and the total mortality. Thus, increased dietary P/L‐ratio seem to reduce the mortality and impaired slaughter quality associated with PD.